Police seized Class A drugs worth more than £26,000 when they executed a search warrant at a Batley house.

Leeds Crown Court heard the officers went to the address in Rink Parade on December 2 last year and found the drugs in the bedroom of Mohammad Alam Aswat-Bahadur.

Among the items seized were a bag containing 40 wraps of crack cocaine and 40 wraps of heroin, a blue coloured wash bag containing a further 123 grammes of heroin, some crushed cocaine and other bags containing more wraps of crack cocaine and heroin.

Heather Gilmore, prosecuting, said the cocaine had a street value of £1,038, the crack cocaine was worth £9,452 and the heroin £15,862.

Pieces of paper amounting to a dealer list, two sets of scales and latex gloves were also discovered along with at least £135 in cash.

Aswat-Bahadur did not answer questions when arrested but said he was scared into holding the drugs having been intimidated by someone the day before.

Jeremy Hill-Baker, representing the defendant, said references described his behaviour as very out of character.

At the time he was struggling to cope with his domestic responsibilities having tragically lost his brother some years earlier.

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He was helping to look after his seriously ill father, who has now died, his marriage had broken down and he was having to cope with the impact of that on his family and was the carer for his mother.

Mr Hill-Baker said Aswat-Bahadur had also set up a car valeting business which was failing and he resorted to alcohol and cocaine as a coping strategy with disastrous consequences.

Aswat-Bahadur, 31, admitted possessing heroin, crack cocaine and cocaine with intent to supply and was jailed for three and a half years.

Judge Robin Mairs said when police executed the search warrant last December “they found what can only be described as a large quantity of Class A drugs.”

The drugs were worth a total of £26,352 and were found along with dealer lists, scales, gloves and cash. “That quantity of drugs speak for themselves as to the circumstances of what was going on.”

The judge said he had read the references and doctor’s letter about his late father’s condition and it was clear he came from a decent, law-abiding family who were upset by his out of character behaviour but there had to be a jail term.